The red battery lanterns cast long, trembling shadows across the oily green catwalk of the Blowout Preventer sub-deck.
Beneath the steel grating, the black swells of the Moon Pool surged with violent, sloshing crashes against the inner caisson walls.
“Watch your footing on these wet rungs!” Mac Cole shouted, his brass prosthetic arm clamping onto the safety rail.
“The salt spray is mixed with hydraulic oil and raw pulp residue,” Mac warned, shining his lantern down onto the central stack.
“One slip off this catwalk and you are in the moon pool with the suction currents!” Mac yelled.
“I can feel the heat radiating through the riser,” Lin Mei said through her Draeger respirator.
“The pipe temperature is already over ninety degrees,” Lin Mei noted, touching the thermal sensing jacket.
“The raw slurry coming up from the Covenant is nearly boiling,” Lin Mei added.
